40 Wednesday January 26 2022 | the times
Business
The boss of Unilever has said that there
are no plans to offload any of its brands
or divisions after announcing 1,500 job
cuts.
Alan Jope, 57, told hundreds of staff
who dialled into a virtual call yesterday
that “there are no plans to have any big
Novacyt braces for decline
in its Covid-related sales
Alex RalphA diagnostics company whose fortunes
were transformed by the pandemic has
warned that sales related to Covid-19
may halve this year, triggering a sell-off
in its shares.
Novacyt said yesterday that its sales
could fall by about 50 per cent in 2022
compared with last year, although
this would be partly offset by new non-
Covid products in the fourth quarter.
The alert sent shares in Novacyt
down by 23.1 per cent, or 55¼p, to 183¾p,
their lowest since April 2020. Novacyt’s
finances and prospects improved in
2020 after it was quick to develop and
launch Covid-19 tests at the start of the
pandemic and as it secured lucrative
contracts, including with the Depart-
ment of Health and Social Care. Its
shares, a favourite among retail inves-
tors, peaked at £11.94 in October 2020,
having begun the year at 13p, but fellafter it warned last April that it was in a
contract dispute with the health de-
partment.
In a full-year trading update ahead of
its final results in April, Novacyt said
that “the course of this pandemic is un-
predictable and so, therefore, is the pre-
dictability of testing demand”.
Underlying revenue is expected to
have fallen to £95.8 million last year,
compared with £277.2 million in 2020,
excluding £40.8 million of revenues
under contractual dispute. Underlying
earnings are expected to top £36 mil-
lion, compared with £176.1 million. Its
cash position at the end of last month
was £101.8 million, compared with
£91.8 million a year earlier.
David Allmond, 51, the chief execu-
tive, said Novacyt had been shifting
away from large, centralised contracts.
He plans to strengthen Novacyt’s
position as a “global first responder” to
outbreaks of novel pathogens.Unilever will cut 1,500 jobs
but leaves disposals at that
Ashley Armstrong Retail Editor disposals in the short term”, after he
announced measures to “simplify” the
business.
Jope is understood not to have
directly addressed the presence of
Nelson Peltz, the owner of Trian Fund
Management, amid speculation that
the American activist investor will
agitate for faster results, bigger dis-
posals of slow-growth brands and
potentially a demerger of its food busi-
ness. The billionaire, 79, has a record of
previously demanding deep-seated
changes at PepsiCo, Kraft and Procter
& Gamble.
Last week Unilever abandoned its
£50 billion pursuit of GlaxoSmith-
Kline’s consumer unit, saying that itwould not raise its price after its offer
had been rejected. Leading Unilever
investors had signalled that they were
opposed to any deal, with Terry Smith,
the boss of Fundsmith, the investment
management company, calling the
failed approach a “near-death experi-
ence”.
Jope tried to downplay perceptions
that the shake-up was a reaction to the
arrival of Peltzon the share register,
saying that the new model had been
“developed over the last year”.
The FTSE 100 company, which
employs 150,000 people worldwide,
including 6,000 in Britain, said that it
would cut senior management roles by
15 per cent and junior management
roles by 5 per cent, equivalent to 1,500
jobs globally.
The maker of Marmite, Dove Soap
and Ben & Jerry’s is reshuffling its
“matrix system” and will now be orga-
nised into five groups: beauty and well-
being; personal care; homecare; nutri-
tion; and ice cream. Jope said that it
would be “more responsive to consum-
er and channel trends, with crystal-
clear accountability for delivery”.
Unilever shares fell 7 ½p, or 0.2 per
cent, to £39.36.
Hermann Soggeberg, chairman of
Unilever’s European Works Council,
said that the group’s reorganisations
“had been going in a circle for the last
20 years. From an employee pers-
pective, I am less concerned about this
plan than the arrival of Mr Peltz. Jope is
very determined and says he will invest
in food and ice cream, but I wonder
whether Peltz has a different idea.”
Unilever also announced the depar-
ture of Sunny Jain, 46, its president of
beauty and personal care, to set up an
investment fund in “technology mega-
trends”. Jain joined in 2019 to lead the
group’s largest division, accounting for
just under half of its revenues last year.
Other changes included: Nitin Par-
anjpe, the chief operating officer, who
will be chief transformation officer;
Fernando Fernández, vice-president of
Latin America, becomes president of
beauty and wellbeing; Fabian Garcia,
president of North America, will head
personal care; and Matt Close becomes
president of ice cream.Jope hopes
to scoop up
gains from
new format